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Today's Opinions

For far too long, the people of Virginia’s Fifth District have been negatively impacted by Washington’s inability to live within its means. This lack of fiscal discipline has created economic uncertainty and prevented more dynamic job growth from occurring. It is high time we put an end to business as usual in Washington and stop spending money the federal government does not have.

Agriculture is vital to Bedford County.
The county boasts some 200,000 acres of farmland and 1,400 farms, with more than $23.6 million in annual farm sales. More than 40 percent of all of Bedford County’s land is used for farming.
And there are almost 3,000 agriculturally-based jobs in the county.

As regular readers of this column know, I always put democrat and democratic in quotes when I’m referring to a particular political party. That’s because I’m convinced the modern “Democratic” Party is anything but democratic. This party has become dominated by its extreme left wing and has increasingly authoritarian leanings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought his case against Iran, and its apparent plans for a nuclear weapon, to the Congress last week, in a speech sponsored by America’s new foreign policy chief, John Boehner.
Actually, Boehner, the Speaker of the House, has no authority whatsoever in foreign policy, but he acted like it when he invited “Bibi,” as he is known, without informing the White House in any way.

The United States and Israel share a strong bond. Since Israel declared its independence in 1948, the U.S. has developed a positive relationship with Israel based on shared democratic values and common security interests. Israel has proven to be a valuable American ally since.

Last Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress. It was a great honor to have Prime Minister Netanyahu come to the United States and speak to both Houses of Congress.

It seems like the teachers’ union just can’t seem to avoid whining when they ask for a pay raise. When Chad Honeycutt, a teachers’ union representative, argued before the board of supervisors for a teacher pay raise, his presentation included the results of a poll to which 100 teachers responded. Some claimed they must have second jobs to make ends meet. Later, one of the slides in his Power Point presentation stated that the average teacher salary in Bedford County is $41,023.